Hello,
We are moving from Melbourne to Brisbane soon and have found a house in the Manly area, I am wondering if anyone can give me some insight into both Manly and Lota state schools? We will be starting our little prep child at a new school at the beginning of term 3. We haven't been able to go up to look at schools yet as the decision to take new job & relocate has happened very fast! I have heard great things about both schools, and am trying to figure out which one will suit our little one best. Is manly a really big school? Unless you really stand out do kids get lost in the crowd?

 

Hi I suppose it depends what you mean by big. The Manly School will have between 2 and 3 classes of children per year group as it is showing 69 year 5 enrolments but has great results score of 98/100 and 5 stars in maths and reading. The lota school is much smaller showing only 15 enrolments but the results look not as good 83/100 and 3 stars in maths and 4 stars in reading. However, with such a small number of pupils this could be due to 1 or 2 students affecting the result. So in short Manly isn't a really big school for the area - more an average school in size. lota is a very small school. I haven't been to see them personally but I would say sometimes you will prefer a school not performing quite as well over one that is at the top of the leaderboard depending on what you want for your children. Some schools have fantastic extra curricular activities that others don't offer.


Also if you have already found a place to live does it fit in the catchment area. You may not have a choice if the Lota primary are sticking strictly to their catchment area (which with the few children they have I suspect they are)
Hope this helps a little - sorry I don't have opinion on the schools themselves at this stage.
If you need any further support PM me as I have good links with relocation consultants